"Love You, Partner"

Nick had maybe one consolation about this. That she wouldn't suspect a thing. It had become clear she was the gift giver in their partnership, given that in the one week they'd been official partners and coworkers she'd given him a new tie and the carrot pen. Which made him more confident that it would only pleasantly surprise her to see this.

And that, ironically, was the only thing he was confident about.

For someone who'd spent two decades in the hustle, one would assume Nick Wilde would be ever so cool about casually giving a gift to someone, but for some reason, the fact that it was Judy Hopps herself seemed to make his brain crawl more than ever. Heck, it had been her in his mind that had steered him to this idea to begin with. He'd casually been taking their time off to take a walk around; Judy was obviously still helping the reptiles as they were in the middle of returning to Reptile Ravine (Of course she would, he thought. She wouldn't think of anything else to spend her free time on). That was when, what do you know, he happened to find a store that sold the very carrot pen that had broken when they'd been scaling the mountain up to the Honeymoon Lodge.

Nick had seriously considered buying one for her. After all, it was clear there was sentimental value for her when it came to the pen; she'd only used it to screw with everyone who'd been standing in her way, Nick included, and she'd said it herself: the pen had sort of become a symbol for the unlikely team they'd become since she'd first recruited him to find that missing otter.

But then he had stopped, just seconds before grabbing a pen. His mind had done it for him. Sure, it would be nice to get her a new one, but what would it say for him to just... get another one? Something like Sorry I accidentally broke your pen; I got you a replacement?

No, something in the back of his mind had told him he could do better.

This had led him to ask Bogo about what happened when they found the pieces of the pen, since Nick assumed that was how the officers had tracked him and Judy to that mountaintop to begin with. Turned out he was right, while they'd been trying (and for him, failing) to get arrested, every piece had been collected, to be used as evidence in the whole affair with Gary, Nick, and Judy all labeled as highly dangerous suspects in the conspiracy.

Nick had begged to get the pieces back now that the case was closed. He wasn't sure why, but he somehow knew he just had to fix the pen for Judy. For some reason, Bogo had seemed to notice the fox's internal thoughts on why he needed to get the pieces of the pen as soon as possible and simply smirked a little before eventually giving him the bag. Nick had been too busy thanking the chief to notice the snickers from those around him, like they knew something he didn't.

He'd spent all night binging videos and growling in frustration, but he finally attached the last bit, having double checked that the wires were back together properly so the mechanisms would actually start working again.

But as he stared at his final product, he began to worry that maybe it wouldn't work. So he'd pressed the playback button, half expecting silence.

"I really am just a dumb bunny."

Oh gosh, it did! He'd done it!

But the victory was short lived as he played the message again.

"I really am just a dumb bunny."

Nick swallowed a little. The "dumb bunny" comment. Something that had spawned from when they'd first met, something Judy had called herself when she was at her lowest during the whole Nighthowler conspiracy, but it had weirdly stung the worst when Pawbert had called her "dumb bunny" while trying to choke her and Nick to death. A bitter taste entered his mouth. Judy wouldn't like to be reminded about the dumb bunny joke now, would she? Especially since the last time she'd heard it from this pen, they'd been fighting...